What do you call it when 144 people are screaming for Tom Renney to be fired?

Gross Hockey Stupidity.

When things are going well, the players are worshipped and lauded. When things are going badly, the fans make one player their scapegoat and boo him incessantly. When things are going really badly, some fans call for the coach to be fired.

Before last nights game, the Rangers 3-6-1 record was fodder for fans to scream “Fire Renney”. Last night, with their defensive system still working well, the Rangers offense finally got going by doing something their coach has been begging them to do. They got some bodies in front of the net and some goals deflected in.

Inspite of the fact that they took too many shots directly into the midsection of Holmqvist, as they had done to Toskola against Toronto, they were still able to score on the powerplay. They did so by getting a body in front of the net and as many shots as possible for rebounds and deflections down low. The powerplay did not succeed when they overpassed themselves out of space and time, as in the 5 on 3 in the second period.

So, what the Rangers need to do is continue with: their commitment to team defense, strong special teams play and shooting the puck more. In other words, just follow what their coaching staff is preaching. The chemistry is coming.

What some fans need to do is grow up, find some damn patience and be supportive.

Some of the “sports talk” radio stations around town are fond of asking the fans to declare their “turning point of game”. Whether that moment turned the game around for good or ill, it always seems to be discernable.

Last night’s loss was directly attributable to one bad decision and some poor play by Henrik Lundqvist. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Lundqvist let in a pretty soft one in Toronto’s first goal, he added insult to injury by coming out of his net to play the puck. He couldn’t get back into position in time and Toronto scored again.

That was the “turning point of the game”. The air went right out of the Rangers tires. I think that it is the third time in his career with the Rangers that Henrik has gotten burned this way. It was unnecessary. Henrik obstinatley continues to handle the puck when it is not his forte.

Maybe Valiquette should start against Tampa to give Lundqvist some rest. Henrik needs to be told that while he is a damn good goaltender, he is not immune from being criticized or being sat if he makes a stupid mistake. He needs to be reminded that he is not invincible.

Renney can’t sit Lundqvist because the Rangers are desparate for wins right now. Some fans are calling for Renney to be fired now. What will happen if the Rangers lose another game or three? The idea of firing Tom Renney now or in the near future is just as ludicrous as sitting Henrik after last night’s debacle.

The Rangers beat New Jersey 2-0 on Thursday playing the same way they did for the first 30 minutes of last night’s game. The only difference was that Lundqvist stopped everything on Thursday night. By the time Toronto had scored the first two of three unanswered goals, there was no going back.

Yeah, the offense stinks right now but Henrik needs to continue to be the solution and not become part of the problem. If this was last season and the Rangers had no offense and spotty goaltending, they would be 0-10. Thank God for small favors.

The Rangers goal drought had to end sooner rather then later and fortunately it ended last night. It also came from an unlikely source, newbie Nigel Dawes. Good for him. It’s about time this kid, any kid, got some real playing time. And, seeing the kids on the second powerplay unit succeed is most encouraging.

Thanks mostly in part the Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers defensive stats were top five in the league going into last night. Their defense and penalty kill has been excellent despite the fact that for 126 minutes, they couldn’t buy a goal.

With three of their top six forwards out injured, Tom Renney had no choice but to hand the puck to the youth and the role players. And, that’s okay. Just like last spring, last night they proved that they are more than capable of stepping up and getting the job done.

Every Ranger on the ice last night came to play. They were all defensively responsible. They played disciplined hockey. They scored first and were able to maintain a one goal lead through 55 minutes of hockey. Now all they need to do moving forward is to play with the same level of committment and intensity. They need to remember how good last night felt.

Once the top two lines develop more of that elusive chemistry, the depth we anticipated when Gomez and Drury were signed should come to fruition. It’s just going to take some patience and time.

A few writers and bloggers would have you believe that the Rangers were just ordinary last night. They looked good because the Devil’s defense was so awful. They refuse to give credit where it is due. It is for them that I have no time and no patience.

Let’s Go Rangers!

W.B. Yeats may be Brendan Shanahan’s favorite poet but I think it is time for Tom Renney and all his players to contemplate some Kipling:

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

To those of you who are crying for Renney to be fired and for Shanahan to retire, I will remember your premature indignation. It is my sincere hope that the Rangers will find their game and turn this young season around. Call me a homer if you like. But, if you jump off the bandwagon now, you’ll see me on top of it with my shotgun keeping you off if you try to jump back on!

Let’s Go Rangers!

Enough with all the fluff and emotion you usually get from me. I got a plan.

The good news is Shanny’s off the schneid. I hope the flood gates open for him. He should just keep shooting the puck.

Jagr is a slow starter. He needs to develop a sense of urgency. He seems not to have the same commitment to playing defensive hockey as he did at the end of last season and in the playoffs. While the defense is in disarray, it is all the more important that all the forwards be more defensively responsible.

Having said that, I cannot help but reiterate Rodent’s mantra. If they cannot move the puck through the neutral zone by passing, if they cannot hold the zone at the opponent’s blueline, they MUST dump, chase and have someone in the slot or high to take the shot. (the glaring absense of an offensive defenseman who can pinch and not get caught. Could Tyutin become that?)

Malik and Roszival are what they are, for good or ill. They only work well togther. I say put them back together and bite the rag. They are looking terrible because Nylander “the Swedish Gretzsky” isn’t there handling the puck so they don’t have to. Keeping Drury (who has stickhandling skill) with Jagr and Hossa/? may be the only option with the Czech Brothers as first pair defenders.

Tyutin and Girardi are young enough and fast enough to be creative. Put them with Shanny centered by Straka with Avery/Dawes on the other side.

Lastly, Prucha, Gomez and Callahan are so fast there could be pylons with them on defense and they could get back fast enough on the transition. Wait, we’ve got a few pylons. Hmmmmm…..

What, you say Gomez is overpaid to be a third line center? Am I saying this line gets third line minutes? No! Third line minutes should go to the line that is the least productive at any given time. It could be Jagr’s line, it could be Shanny’s line or it could be the “kid” line.

Betts is not a third line center. He belongs with Orr and Hollweg/? on the fourth line. If that means Dubinsky goes down, that’s too bad. He can go up and down as necessary.

Coach Renney just has to make a commitment to keeping linemates together for now. Get a few wins under our belt before further experimentation is affordable.

Give the minutes to the lines and players that earn it. That’s accountability. Losses are more palateable if effort and accountability are evident. If everyone is accountable and puts in their best effort on both sides of the puck, win or lose, that’s all a fan can ask.

If we turn back the hands on the clock, at six games in last season the Rangers were 3-3. Ten games into last season the Rangers were 5-5. I hardly think that at 2-4 after six game it is time to panic. Many Ranger fans seem to be doing just that after last night’s loss to the lowly Atlanta Thrashers.

After screaming for the benching of Malik, fans got an even worse performance from Thomas Pock. Without his partner in crime, Roszival struggled mightily. These things aside, the Ranger lines were still being changed up by Coach Renney in his effort to spark some fire. Nigel Dawes was once again afforded the chance to shine on the first line and failed to distinguish himself.

All these things aside, I do not begrudge Tom Renney the opportunity to have more of a look see at all the possible line combinations before he eventually settles. With the Rangers’ plethora of talent at forward, it will take more then the pre-season and six regular season games to fairly evaluate who fits with whom.

Let’s all take a step back from the cliff, take a deep breathe and show some patience and support this team and it’s coach instead of throwing them under the bus after just six games. I seem to recall writing the same thing last year at this time. Unfortunately, this site crashed and lost all it’s content written before March 2007.

Excuse me while I back up my blog.

Curiously enough, after my post-game rant on Wednesday caused a seeming firestorm in the New York Area Hockey Blogosphere (or so I am told), The New York Rangers are asking this question on their website Fan Poll:

“Do you plan to attend any of this season’s four Rangers-Islanders games at the Nassau Coliseum?”

So far, the responses are 61% - NO!

Wait, maybe I shouldn’t divulge this information. We don’t want a bunch of Fishstick fans going over there and skewing the result.

Jeez, I guess I was just preaching to the choir, eh? I wouldn’t flatter myself into thinking that anything I write here has any influence on the Rangers organization or anyone else. I do it for fun and to work out my angst about my team and hockey in general.

Still, it is an unusual coincidence. Hmmmmm.

I didn’t expect the Rangers to beat the Stanley Cup runner up Ottawa Senators last night. In fact, after losing to the Fishsticks on Wednesday, it was easy to see the Rangers being 1-4 by today. The fact that they are 2-3 is a bonus. Five games in to this season, there was no shame in being runner up to the Ottawa Senators last night.

After playing a decent 30 minutes of hockey, a series of horrendous gaffes by the Rangers defense and one soft goal triggered a 52 second Ottawa blitzkrieg that put this game out of the Rangers reach. Ottawa trapped them for the remaining 30 minutes.

One minute of poor defensive play still cannot excuse the lack of scoring on the part of the offense and their “gone missing” powerplay. So many times, this team tried to carry the puck over the blueline against the best trapping team in the league. One wonders if the concept of dump and chase is lost upon the top two lines who continued to try and finesse the puck up the ice.

That was precisely the time when the “kids” should be out there expending all that youthful energy. If the big boys didn’t have the footspeed and the energy after playing the night before, Renney should have thought about letting the kids lead the way. It couldn’t have been any worse than watching the ineffective play of the top two lines. Jagr and Drury playing 25 minutes each was not the answer.

Finally, on to Brendan Shanahan. Shanny took 13 shots and couldn’t score one goal. He missed a couple of shots where we were shaking our heads that those pucks did not go in the net. In a rare display of emotion and temper, Shanahan slammed his stick as he left the ice. This poor guy is snake bitten right now. All I can say is that Brendan should keep shooting the puck on net. Good things have to happen sooner or later. The whole team, including Brendan, ran into a brick wall in Martin Gerber last night.

It reminds me of the story Shanny tells of his first game in Detroit after being traded from Hartford. He barely got to the Joe in time for the game. He walked in just as the rest of the team was heading out to the pre-game warm up. He looked at Steve Yzerman and told him to go on without him and that he would be out as soon as he could. Yzerman told Brendan that they would wait for him and all go out together as a team. As a team.

So to Brendan Shanahan I say, it’s only the fifth game of the season. I cannot speak for the rest of the fans but I will wait for you Bren.

The Washington Capitals came in to the Garden tonight 3-0 and the Rangers did well to respect them. To their own detrement, the Caps took too many penalties. The Rangers know all about taking too many penalties. To their credit, the Rangers scored 3 powerplay goals. I can guess what the Rangers worked on at practice on Thursday.

The Caps and the Rangers played a pretty clean game. Brashear only played 6 minutes. Hanlon was smart to reign him in after all those early penalties. Nylander had 0 shots on goal. Luck was on the Rangers side in keeping Ovechkin off the board.

Tyutin and Girardi were awesome, offensive and defensively. Girardi always makes the safe play and still got 5 shots on goal. While Shanahan isn’t hitting the back of the net, he did have 7 shots, an assist and saved a goal by being smart enough not to screen Lundqvist. Jagr had 3 assists and except for one agregious give away at center ice, looked like he was in the game, all game. The difference between tonight’s game and the first three of this season was that every Ranger brought it tonight.

The Caps continued to bring it to the last seconds of the game. The score and the shots on goal are not an indication of poor play. Too many penalties early killed them. I have tremendous respect for Olaf Kolzig. He is such a great goaltender. It is my hope that the Caps make the playoffs and continue to play well for the rest of the season, just not against the Rangers.

.

How many more times do Ranger fans have to go to the Mausoleum only to watch the officials hand a game to the Fishsticks?

The answer is: You Don’t!

The attendance in Nassau was over 15,000 tonight. I will bet my first born that over half of the fans were wearing Ranger jersies. It’s all well and good to support your team. But, last season and already starting this season, the officials have done their best to hand the Islanders games by calling the most ridiculous penalties. The Islander were given three 5 on 3’s powerplays on ludicrous calls.

Shanahan’s stick was being slashed, yet he gets a holding the stick penalty. Roszival get a boarding penalty for finishing a check. Ryan Callahan gets yanked down from behind and gets called for diving. This officiating is disgraceful.

Let’s run some numbers. We play the Fish 4 times at Nassau. Conservatively, if we put 4000 fans in seats at an average cost of $45.00 per seat, that’s $180,000. Times that by 4 games and you get $720,000. That’s about what they are paying Bryan Berard, who scored the game winning goal on the second 5 on 3.

If the Rangers are going to get penalized for clean checks, Ranger fans should penalize the Islanders, the NHL and their incompetant officials by not writing their checks to see the ice get tilted in Uniondale.

Vote with your wallets. Stop driving revenue to the Islander franchise. Your dollars help keep this franchise afloat.

Just Say NO!

Stay the hell home!